I was talking to a friend today about our makerspace, and the talk turned to makerspaces in general. We discussed some of the directions that other makerspaces have gone, and where we could possibly go. With the upcoming election, we’ve asked our candidates about their vision for MakeICT, but we haven’t asked our members in general. So this is for everyone: How do you envision our makerspace in 2 years? How about 5 years? If you could choose new areas for MakeICT to delve into, what would they be?
I’ve got a few ideas that I would love to see, but just as an example, would you like us to have a Virtual Reality Lab? How about flight and racing simulators? A Fine Arts studio, complete with oil and acrylic paint, canvases, easels, brushes, pastels, watercolors, and the like? A podcast studio? Video production? The sky’s the limit…give me your ideas!
Slot car track? Pinball machine repair area (with machines to play, of course)? Chemistry lab? 3D scanning studio? Great big room filled with just hackables and tools? Robotics Lab? How about having someone come and teach Ground School for your pilot’s license? Animation/Claymation Studio?
How about a water jet cutter? Recreation center? Snack bar? Community or Rooftop or Community Rooftop Garden? Fully-stocked Teaching Kitchen? R/C Car/Airplane Lab? Model Rocket Lab? Super-Hi-Res DLP 3D printers? Blacksmithing? Leatherworking? Knifemaking? Comic Book/Graphic Novel Library and reading area? Cosplay studio?
Some makerspaces are set up so that they’re open to anything, and a group of members can automatically petition for resources if they come up with a certain number of people to volunteer to help with it. What group would you support?
My dad (RIP, Dad) was involved with a local car enthusiast club. They went to their members to find out what each member was really good at, then put together an expert help directory. If you needed help with fixing the speedometer in a '57 Chevy, the speedometer guy’s contact info was in the directory under “Speedometers.” There were dozens of expert specialties, and many dozens of people you could contact for advice or help in rebuilding your antique Chevrolet. Would something like that work for us? Why or why not? What category would you be listed under at MakeICT? Would you be willing to give advice or help to someone in your specialty?
Enough kidding.
I’d like to see some gateways to making, some table top versions of our larger CNCs, Paper crafting, and another income stream in the form of a creative reuse store.
A digital media lab would be awesome. Get some wacom display tablets, video/audio editing software, 3d camera scanning station, high res sls printers, green screen…
I think they would and it might help bridge the gap for those who are less tech savvy. I"d also like to see some of those paper/fabric cutters. I had a member call me with questions yesterday. We can afford to have one of each and help our members decide which is best if they want to invest or after a few passes decide one of those table top home versions isn’t what they need and they graduate to our more industrial models. I like to call these things gateway making tools.
I know that I’m still a bit (lot) intimidated by Mario and Luigi even though I had great teachers for both classes—I’m looking at your @jwithers and @Christian. I also feel bad about only wanting to use them for smaller projects.